Babygirl (2013)

Babygirl: Directed by Macdara Vallely. With Yainis Ynoa, Rosa Arredondo, Flaco Navaja, Joshua Rivera. Set in the Bronx, BABYGIRL is a bitter-sweet drama about teenager LENA who, since she can remember, has watched her mom LUCY squander her life on a series of deadbeat men. When VICTOR, her mom’s latest boy toy, starts hitting on her Lena sets up an elaborate honey-trap, hoping to show her mom what a scumbag the guy really is. But the plan backfires. Trapped in a twisted love-triangle between Victor and her mom, Lena finally realizes that the only way out is to stand up and finally confront some difficult home truths.

“When I read the synopsis for this movie, I must admit that I was more than intrigued, because it sounded like director and writer Macdara Vallely was on to something extraordinary here. So it was with quite an amount of expectation that I sat down to watch u0026quot;Babygirlu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, it turned out that my expectations to the movie were not brought to a fruitful cash in, because u0026quot;Babygirlu0026quot; turned out to be somewhat of a different movie than what I had believed it to be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith that being said, donu0026#39;t get me wrong, it is still a nice movie and indeed a very watchable movie at that. I was just expecting something else, so I was a bit disappointed with the end result of the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Babygirlu0026quot; started out quite OK in establishing the characters and setting the stage, but then it took an abrupt nose dive for the worse.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt was the characters in the movie that proved to be the biggest disappointment in my opinion. I say that because the characters were rigid and wooden, and they seemed very superficial and one-dimensional.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe acting, however, was quite good, and people were doing good jobs with the severe limitations imposed upon them by the script and the director. Yainis Ynoa carried the movie quite nicely, and Flaco Navaja really performed well despite his sleazy role.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Babygirlu0026quot; was suffering from having a terrible written script. The intention of the writer and director was definitely good and there was a lot of effort put into this movie. But it just didnu0026#39;t had what mattered in terms of being unique and standing out. It felt like just another run-of-the-mill drama, except this was with an all Latino cast.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll in all, not the best of dramas that I have seen, and it wasnu0026#39;t what I had expected, so I was somewhat disappointed.”